And Have Babies With Green Eyes
by it makes sense in context
Summary: What if somehow, by some miracle, York hadn't died?


What if somehow, by some miracle York hadn't died? What if Recovery Two responded instead of Recovery One? What if that bitch South made him trade Delta for medical help. What if Delta had made that decision telling him to live and find Carolina. What if delta too yorks life out of his own hands because this is the logical choice, Agent York. And that was what D was. Logic. And it was logical to take the best course of action.

Find Carolina.

Those words had been burned into his brain. It hade been his goal anyway, to find Carolina, York knew she couldn't be dead, that it would take more than that to kill her. She was the best for a reason. And he did find her, but it took him years. He had to recover first. Without an AI recovery was slow. It took him a year to be anywhere near the condition he had been in when he 'died'. It frustrated him, the intense slowness of the healing. But then again, anything was better than being dead.

Next was the actually finding Carolina part. She was a tricky one, you only found her if she let you. He investigated every account he heard of 'a mean lady in blueish-green armour' and turned up almost nothing. Except for a cheerful doctor who lamented not getting to 'psychoanalyze her and the blue one and the one with a southern accent and the tiny ghost man! Oh they would have been so interesting! And while we're at it can I psychoanalyze you? Because I want to know what's going through the head of anyone who wants to find that lot.' All while performing an amputation.

He did find her in the end, well she found him, if you want to be technical. As he discovered, if you make a large enough disturbance. Like robbing the UNSC treasury. They would send their 'elite' army after you. And Carolina just so happened to be the most competent member. It wasn't a perfect reunion, she just about blinded him. Though addressing her as 'Sweet Carolina' probably wasn't the best idea. She eased up a bit when she realised it was him. Though she still broke one of his ribs, by hugging him too hard.

After that, life was good for them. She filled him in on everything, the Director, Tex, her mother. Her involvement with the Reds and Blues and everything since. And he just listened, which was what she needed. A chance to talk it out, to come to terms with how her father messed up, messed her up. And why he did it. It was also a chance for her to be thankful. Thankful that she hadn't taken the same route. They still fought alongside the Reds and Blues, but they left the UNSC after a while. It was hard to stick with the people who saw no problem with Project Freelancer.

They did get married. A small ceremony officiated by Sarge and attended by all their friends. Church gave Carolina away and Wash was best man. She managed not to swear through the whole ceremony. Donut cried and even Freckles the Gun was present. The partiers danced until late in the night, before shoving the happy couple into a ship to go on their honeymoon.

Less than a year later they were expecting their first child. Doctor Grey served as midwife. She hummed cheerfully while telling Carolina to "Calm down, you're going to break your husband's hand. And I'm doing to have to amputate it!" Their friends filled the hall, and Sarge guarded the door. Simmons was running a betting pool for eyes, hair, and gender and Delta was giving him odds. York swiped the money the second he found out. Grif was napping on Simmons shoulder. Tucker was down at the nurse's station doing what he does best. Donut and Doc were listening to one of Caboose's stories. Church had generated images of the other AI out of boredom and Theta was amusing 479er with a fireworks display.

Three hours and a whole lot of screaming by Carolina later, Allison entered the world. Blond haired, green eyed, (Caboose won the bet. Grif acused Delta of helping him). York named Wash as godfather., and Little Allison was introduced her hoard of honorary Aunts and Uncles. Church took one look at Allison and disappeared (Carolina muttered something about how he was definitely based on her father). Though it was later revealed that Allison triggered something locked in his memory. Sarge looked for all the world like a proud grandfather when Allison was handed to him, and York made a joke about how Sarge was going to be waiting at the door with his shotgun the day she brought home her first boyfriend.

They say it takes a village to raise a child, but they had an army. They settled down on Chorus and bought houses all on the same block. Raising Allison was a team effort. York and Carolina did most of it, but they couldn't have done it without everyone's help. Caboose's stories, Donut's cooking and Simmons' babysitting all helped. Tucker, surprisingly, was the one who wanted to protect her innocence the most. Carolina made sure her daughter could fight as well as any Freelancer, and York taught her lock picking (he was in fact good at it, he just cracked under pressure). Church made a reappearance, now accompanied by Tex. Much like a normal computer anything deleted wasn't really gone and could be recovered with the right circumstances. And since Church was Epsilon and memory is the key, the name Allison triggered his memory of Tex.

York still worked as a thief-for-hire, or as he liked to put it 'Redistribution of product in return for money' and Carolina was 'Hired by people to protect them from other people' as far as her daughter was concerned.

Allison grew up to be a well-adjusted young lady. She could fight as well as her mother and snark like her father. She was a sharpshooter, and top of her class at school (Simmons helped Kimball with setting up a school system). Doctor Grey taught her all she needed to know about medicine and by the time she was fifteen she was joining her parents on heists and the Bloodgulchers when they were hired as someone's personal army. It was the family business after all.

Carolina and York were happy, they had both been through so much. They were parents to a wonderful daughter, and with their friends formed one big happy family.


End file.
